The New Shiny Escapist

[FateOrFatality]

Not gonna lie, new Escapist is pretty horrible. I don't think I even have to say anything about the horrible white background, but the most annoying thing is that the site is using almost less than half of my screen. There is just these huge, white ugly bars on the sides of my screen making my eyes bleed.

Layout seems to be pretty terrible to, honestly. I mean, objectively this hasn't "ruined" the Escapist or anything, but we seem to have lost a lot and not gained very much by this update.

 

[Souplex]

I could barely abide the 08 redesign, what made you think I'd like this one?

 

[jcm0791]

Don't like that the headers are invisible until you hover over them. My Netbook does not like the dropdowns that do appear (they fall off the bottom of the screen)

Too white (something I bet you never thought would come from someone living in redneck land)... it looks, well, cheap.

The old site was more intuitive ... and there was more than one way to get from here to there. Specifically, the series index page that listed all the videos by contributor. It was easy to find all of my favorite videos broken down by name and then cronology. If it is still here it is not easy to find like it was in the past.

And yes ... painfully slow load times. I can see it hanging waiting for the adds to load before content finishes loading. It may be that the bottleneck is in the add servers not the escapist servers hence the variation of perception of the load times.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Getting pass the initial fear of small change, I think I'll learn to like it.

 

[crudus]

Spoiler: That's all great. My only concern is addressing my first thought of the site change:

Oh. my. goddess. That. is white. WHITE!! Why is it white?! IT BURNS! IT BURNS WITH THE POWER OF LEMON!! It is so white!!! Any color but white, please. AHHHRRG MY EYES!

Did I mention that it is really white?

Seriously though it looks like a multi-player notepad. It just doesn't look as polished as the old escapist did; it looks like the browser half loaded the page. Sure the functionality of the site increased probably tenfold, but it is not aesthetically pleasing. I will be the first to tell you that I am all for functionality over looks (I make it work, not pretty); however, there are times when being pretty is just as important as functionality. The amount of white is very off-putting, and isn't a good first impression on newcomers.

Well the forums are raging pretty badly. I don't actually have any problems with the new layout, navigating and stuff is pretty simple...

My only problem is the list of consoles across the top, it just looks a bit out of place to me.

I really don't understand how people are having problems navigating. Maybe if they are putting their pointer in the spot where links used to be, it would be a problem.

 

[jurnag12]

Oh god my eyes

 

[Wintermoot]

I don,t really like the new look but I think I can get used to this.

 

[Filiecs]

Don't like it. I like the recent posts feature but I can't access the news as easily and it's a pain on my eyes.
Also, there are too many links I have to click to get where I want to go as things are less direct.
The old site was almost perfectly streamlined, why change it to be annoying?

Also, I can;t find the old news AND new news nearly as easily as before.

 

[DanielBrown]

I really dislike it to be honest.
Got a widescreen monitor, so it's pretty much all a white page to me. Looks bad, and my eyes hurt.

Reduce all the white! Colors is your friend!

 

[ckam]

The old scheme worked better for me when just looking through series of random videos.

I also don't really like the brightness of it all. Hurts my eyes a little too much. I haven't really tried out anything else.

 

[Stefan Rogen]

Actually never post, I am just a silent consumer. The new design is ugly and keeps me from finding what I am looking for. Please change it back.

 

[Callate]

I don't want to be the guy who spits on the redesign just because he got comfortable with the status quo. It looks all right, and I'm sure I'll get used to it in time; I'm not seeing the advertised utility of the new design, but perhaps I need to dig deeper.

I stopped going to GameSpy's site after their re-design in part because it made less information available and made it harder to access the articles I wanted to find, and partly because some idiot on their staff had the gall to herald the change with a poll whose choices amounted to "Do you love the new site design, or are you a loser." Comparatively, this isn't anything like that bad.

I do have to make one notable (and relatively easily fixable) quibble, though: the "scrolling newsbar" as it's currently set uses a font large enough to cut headlines off in awkward places. We're not so myopic that we can't read a smaller font, and if it would allow us to read full headlines, I think it would be an improvement. Thanks for listening.

 

[Choppaduel]

The white background hurts the eyes and so does the font. Its now literally painful to read the articles on the Escapist.

 

[Dark_Daemon]

I can't easily find what the newest videos of my favorite shows are. This makes me sad.

 

[spacepope22]

This might take a bit to get used to, not that it's bad, it's just...different.

 

[BabyRaptor]

I liked the old layout a hell of a lot better. Throw me on the "Too many boxes" and "OMFG, blinding white" lists.

Also, I want my red text when I get a message back. This one isn't anywhere near as noticeable and it doesn't even alert you unless you refresh the page.

 

[Jonluw]

I like the drop down menus. They're a useful addition.
But the objects on the site feel a bit disconnected and floaty for my taste, and the background is too white.
Optional darker colour-scheme, please?

 

[Trishbot]

I REALLY preferred the old, functional, familiar, easy-on-the eyes layout. Just being honest, the new one bothers me quite a bit.

It's so BRIGHT that it's unpleasant to look at. It's cluttered. Several things are redundant (two profile tabs, one of which can't be clicked on?). I can't find anything. My "recent activity" is just going to be forum posts, and I can keep track of those on my own. News is hard to find. New videos are even harder to find.

Was there really that big an outcry to change the site? I thought it was doing quite well, had a unique and functional layout, a memorable yellow-themed motif, and plenty of user accessibility.

I'm just... wow, bombarded with all these things I have little interest in and finding the things I used to gravitate towards is now harder than ever and, with the new bright white colors, not very aesthetically pleasing either.

 

[Funkysandwich]

It's fine, I don't mind it at all.

 

[Crazycat690]

Too bright, although the white and blue colours make me feel a bit patriotic. From Finland u know. Still, the first thing that stuck me was the blinding light so yeah, otherwise good but you know 0.o